L-3 KEO has been awarded a multimillion dollar contract option from
Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) for nine Mk20 Electro-Optical Sensor
Systems (EOSSs), the company announced in a July 22 release.

In 2005, L3-KEO won a competitive procurement to provide
the U.S. Navy with an Electro-Optical Sensor System (EOSS) to fulfill
the needs of the Cruiser (Ticonderoga class) Modernization Program.
Building on the proven MK46 Optical Sight System, the MK20 MOD 0 EOSS
was designed to incorporate the latest technologies into a proven baseline.
Among the state-of-art features that were incorporated are full digital
stabilization with high reliability fiber-optic gyros, a separate eyesafe
laser rangefinder LRU that incorporates a longlife diode-pumped laser
with an increased rep rate and increased ranging performance, improved
BIT and maintainability features, as well as excellent sensor to sensor
boresight alignment.

L-3 KEO
will build and test the systems, as well as perform engineering services
activities, over the course of the next two years in its Northampton
facility. This is the final contract option from a sole-source NAVSEA
contract that was awarded to L-3 KEO in 2011 and raises the total number
of Mk20 EOSSs ordered to 61.

“We are very proud of our long history of providing the U.S. Navy
with a robust and versatile optical sensor solution that can support
a wide variety of important missions,” said Matthew Richi, president
of L-3 KEO. “Our system delivers outstanding mission capability
and targeting accuracy to the surface warfare community.”

The Mk20 EOSS is an integral part of both the Mk34 and Mk48 Gun Weapon
Systems (GWSs) and provides highly accurate, three-dimensional, time-tagged
target position data in support of GWS operations, as well as day and
night imagery to support visual detection and identification, navigation,
surveillance and situational awareness. These gun systems are installed
aboard U.S. Navy Arleigh Burke-class destroyers and Ticonderoga-class
cruisers, as well as U.S. Coast Guard Bertholf-class national security
cutters.